In Which They Watched An Anime
by YaoiLord
Summary: "So it's basically an anime about basketball." "Yeah. Except that the basketball players here don't move like your normal human basketball player." "What do you mean?" "They're like metahumans, but they play basketball instead." In which Cisco and Barry watches Kuroko no Basketball.


**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Flash and Kuroko no Basketball.**

 **A.N.: Enjoy reading!**

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When Barry Allen arrived at S.T.A.R. Labs, he found everybody doing their everyday routine—Caitlin doing some test like usual, Julian doing a bit of the paperwork from the precinct, and H.R. doing some serious air drumming while monitoring Wally's speed.

Barry expected to find Cisco tinkering on some machine, but instead he found the man in his workstation at the cortex, hunched on his laptop and seemingly absorbed in whatever he was watching that he barely noticed Barry coming.

"Oh, hey, there you are," Cisco greeted, hardly lifting his gaze from the monitor.

Barry came closer, intrigued by whatever his friend was watching. Up close, he could see the familiar style of Japanese animation on screen. "You're watching anime," Barry stated. "And that's a sports anime." Barry's taste in anime ran only within the category of science fiction. Dragon Ball is, and will always be, his favorite. There were others that he tried like _Terraformars_ —although he developed some kind of fear of cockroaches after watching that show. The anime entitled _Parasyte_ appealed to him, but found the plot to be short and background stories lacking in foundation; otherwise, it was good.

The shows that he tried were Cisco's recommendations as they both favor the same genre. That was why it was weird to see him watching something out of their category. If ever Cisco tried a different genre, it was either mystery or psychological or horror.

Cisco shrugged. "Reviews are pretty good," he muttered. "Besides, there was nothing to do but sit around and wait for some metas to pop out. Not that I'm complaining for a day off."

The speedster couldn't argue with that. It was pretty much a normal day, except that normal didn't have the same definition as before for them. Barry pulled a chair to settle beside him. "What's the title?"

" _Kuroko no Basketball_ ," Cisco said. " _The Basketball which Kuroko plays_. The title says it all."

Barry nodded, watching the screen as the opening song played. The episode was about a basketball practice match. Barry figured out that the character with the sky blue hair was Kuroko, who by the looks of it too pale and small compared to the other basketball players. There were words like 'Generation of Miracles' and 'Phantom Sixth Man' that he couldn't understand yet.

"So it's basically an anime about basketball. I remembered an old anime with the same theme." Barry recalled _Slam Dunk_ , an anime aired in a channel when he was a kid. He wasn't exactly athletic; therefore he never got the hype it gave to his peers.

"Yeah. Except that the basketball players here don't move like your normal human basketball player," Cisco supplied.

"What do you mean?"

"They're like metahumans, but they play basketball instead." Barry glanced at him confusedly. "Watch."

It was just in time when a redhead character, Kagami, jumped high enough (or maybe a bit too high) for a dunk. "Well, there's an NBA player that can do that right?" The dunk was followed by the goal ring being ripped off from the board that Kagami unintentionally did. "Whoah."

"That's not even the one I was taking about," Cisco said drily. "Wait for the Generation of Miracles."

Kuroko and Kagami were partners on the same team and were currently up for a practice match with a blonde character who goes by the name of Kise, a former Generation of Miracles member. The blonde was the last to be part of the team of basketball prodigy, he said, and was the 'least talented'.

Except that Kise's talent in basketball was copying a move he had seen from a player.

"Is that even possible?" Barry asked, half confused and half amazed when Kise imitated Kagami's dunk except the part of damaging the ring.

Cisco gave him another shrug, absentmindedly looking for a lollipop in the desk drawer. "Can't wait for the others."

There was no exchange that followed when they proceed to episodes after episodes until the practice game was done. Barry's eyes widened a bit at Kuroko's ability to be of low presence while in the game, earning him the title of 'The Phantom Sixth Man' when he was in middle school and part of The Generation of Miracles. Not really a prodigy himself but a game changer nonetheless.

"How did you came by this? I thought you only watch certain genres?" Barry asked when they finished an episode. The next one would be about a green-haired player with a penchant for horoscope. "What was your last one, _Ranpo Kitan_?"

Cisco groaned at that. "Tell me about it, man. I do appreciate a good mystery, except that the whole mystery there is whether the main character is a girl or a boy."

"Typical." Barry chuckled. "They have a thing for that." He vaguely remembered an anime called _Boku no Pico_ that earned a reputation to be rather… famous in the internet.

Midorima, the green-haired character, was another former member of Generation of Miracles with a self-acclaimed tagline of 'My shot never miss'. Barry thought it was a cocky character that never tasted defeat, and then would be humbled by Kuroko and Kagami when they defeat him.

Except that Midorima _never_ really missed a shot.

"What?"

"If horoscope indeed works that way, I'll happily follow mine forever." Cisco was holding packaged popcorn this time and Barry dunked his hand in it. "His ability is cool, though."

High-arc shots by the left hand and could be shot from any part of the court. And precise, even.

"I wonder if he's mentally doing calculations for his accuracy. If that's the case, the Green Arrow might be doing the same too."

"That or it is horoscope magic," Barry commented. "Oliver's precision is due to years of practice."

"Horoscope seems more likely."

The show dragged on as Kuroko and Kagami defeated Midorima and his partner, who has some sort of a special eye that could see through Kuroko's low presence. In every basketball match, Kagami's jump went higher and higher.

"Oh no, the high jumps must be affecting Kagami's legs," Cisco predicted. "If his legs took too much stain, they'll lose the next game."

Sure enough, they did.

The main duo was facing another character from Generation of Miracles, a dark blue-haired player this time. Barry frowned at the complexion. "I didn't know there is black Japanese."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that because that sounded too racist."

"No, I don't mean it that way! I mean, he's clearly not a _ganguro._ "

There was a scene of Aomine, the character they were talking about, being called _ganguro_ by his female childhood friend.

"Maybe he's half American?" Cisco said. "It explains the height, aptitude for basketball, and his… ya know."

"Right."

There was a fallback between Kuroko and Kagami after being defeated by Aomine's team—cold shoulders and diminishing coordination between the two followed. Somehow, Barry thought he could relate.

The ending episodes of the season consisted of a match between Kise's team and Aomine's, some lecture regarding Kagami's growing abilities by Midorima, Kuroko and Kagami's team in a summer get-away, and a former teammate of Kagami and Kuroko's senior co-members coming back to town and could quite possibly join the team once again.

Barry couldn't believe he was actually looking forward to the next season.

"Kiyoshi Teppei will bring the team together in a tighter unity, you know?"

Barry and Cisco promptly turned around and found H.R. and Wally and Caitlin not far behind. They wondered how long have they been there.

"You know this show?" Cisco asked H.R..

"It's quite popular with the teenagers, especially the females, back there. It made me watched the whole series. Three seasons. Actually good."

"The series is completed back there? That's unfair," Cisco mourned. He snapped back to H.R. "No spoilers."

"Sure," H.R. agreed gladly. "Although I gotta say, Kise will come out as the best former Generation of Miracle's player with his improved ability to copy, useful when he faced off with the player who can steal—"

"I said no spoilers!"

"Characters are colorful," Wally muttered. "It may or may have inspired me to play some basketball before when I caught it on TV."

"You too, Wally?" Barry asked. "If you haven't seen Dragonball, you better watch it with me some time."

Caitlin hummed thoughtfully. "Nobody will talk about the bromance?" she asked, mostly to himself but loud to be heard. She cleared her throat, embarrassed. "I may have seen a fanfiction or two." She smiled shyly.

By the doorframe, Julian couldn't help but mutter as he listened to their exchange.

"Weebs."

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 **THE END**

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 **Note:**

 **Ganguro** (ガングロ) is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women that started in the mid-1990s, distinguished by a dark tan and contrasting make-up liberally applied by fashionistas.

-Wikipedia

 **A.N.: Thanks for reading! ^_^**


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